Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF - 3/28/26

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

We'd love to talk. Business. When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96.

Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Hey, Ontario! Come down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive, the Price is Right Fortune Pig has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show, only at BetMGM. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games like Plinko, Clifhanger, and the Big Wheel into fun casino game features.

Don't forget to download the BetMGM Casino app for exclusive access and excitement on the Price is Right Fortune Pick. Pull up a seat and experience the Price is Right Fortune Pick, only available at BetMGM Casino. BetMGM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager. Ontario only, please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConX Ontario at 1866-531-260 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. This podcast is supported by the original organic betting and bath brand, Koyuchi. Koyuchi has spent 35 years pioneering quality organic textiles, long before the word organic became, you know, trendy. But words matter to Koyuchi, words like craftsmanship, longevity, and wellness.

So what does the word wellness mean to Koyuchi? It means that all of our products are absolutely free from harsh chemicals and dangerous toxins that can seep into your skin. It means effortless style that looks as good as it feels with naturally breathable, pre-washed organic cotton. And what does all of that mean to you? Well, it means that you can sleep well in Koyuchi's crisp, cool, luxuriously soft sheets that are ethically made and made with you in mind. Live well, sleep well with Koyuchi.

Get 15% off your first order when you visit Koyuchi.com. That's Koyuchi.com to get 15% off. C-O-Y-U-C-H-I.com. This week saw Donald Trump losing big in court like his attempt to, to block Anthropic and Claude from being used in the military. This week saw the Trump officials running scared from subpoenas like Pam Bondi, Trump's head of the DOJ.

This week saw top Trump DOJ officials making incriminating admissions like Todd Blanche at CPAC where he basically admits that he wants to have ice hover over our polling areas and basically admitting to unlawful terminations, within the DOJ and FBI and then going after Bonnie Willis and Letitia James and Alvin Bragg. We'll talk about that. This week saw top Trump officials literally crying and being hospitalized for stress,

or at least we learned that that's what's going down. Apparently, Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, is so stressed out by Donald Trump and Stephen Miller yelling at him that he's been hospitalized, allegedly, at least twice. and they follow him around with defibrillators because he has panic attacks based on doing his job, which is basically torturing people and terrorizing people and throwing people with his ice and Gestapo into detention centers and concentration camps here. It's why people are out today by the millions for this no kings protest, among many other reasons. The America is standing firm and saying, we don't want kings.

And after no kings won back over the summer, no king's. two in October and now no Kings three expected and by all accounts what we saw earlier today, it's already, it seemed to be bigger than the other two, although we'll wait for some of those official count numbers as well. It's why people were out there protesting today against this Trump regime. So Donald Trump may try to drape the DOJ building and billboards with his face on it, but we the people are saying no to Kings, yes to democracy, and yes to the rule of law. Let's bring in Michael Popak. Popak, a lot to discuss, as noted, a big loss in the Northern District of California in the Anthropic lawsuit, Anthropics filed an injunct for injunctive relief against the Trump regime,

and the judge issued a powerful ruling. Again, another ruling of a judge calling out the Trump for behaving like a dictator, apt for no kings. We see developments in the Epstein files, which we'll talk about as well, both Pam Bondi trying to dodge that subpoena. But also you have Indyke and Khan, the lawyer and the accountant for Epstein testifying over the past two weeks before the House Oversight Committee and the House Oversight Committee, at least led by the Democrats Garcia, pushing for these hard drives that Epstein private investigators took. And apparently the DOJ never like looked for these hard drives. Like what the hell you get? What kind of a chain of custody is that? So we got we got a lot to discuss Pope. I got today's episode. Yeah, I grew up in New York,

New Jersey, as people know, as you did. And there used to be a phrase that referred to the subway system, which is, stay away from the third rail. The third rail was the electrified rail, or still is, that subways run on. And usually an administration has one third rail. I've never seen an administration that has two third rails and hold onto them as if it's going to help their sinking,

poll numbers, or administration. One third rail is the continued cover-up and the cover-up of the cover-up of the Epstein child sex trafficking ring in Donald Trump's involvement, either with the ring or with the cover-up or with both. And the other one now of Donald Trump, again, of his own creation, is the Iranian, the Iran war. And we no longer, even Trump doesn't refer to it as the military incursion or operation. He calls it what it is, an illegal war being waged by Donald Trump

in violation of the Constitution without a resolution by Congress. Congress to remind people, he still controls. You wouldn't know it by the recent things that you and I have talked about in our respective channels, Midas and Legal A.F. About voter ID blocked today in the Senate. And no, there's not going to be funding for the TSA because MAGA speaker, Mike Johnson, blocked it. You're like, who controls these two aspects of the government? I thought it was Trump. So he holds on for dear life to these two third race.

refusing to acknowledge that he's made mistakes, which of course is his core, the core crack in his character that he can never recover from. That's why when you combine that with the courage and crowds in the streets to show that 10 million or more people today representing, you know, you add it all together with all the various iterations of marching in the streets since this administration started, you're talking about maybe 20% of the electorate. That goes well beyond what Abigail Jackson, who I think is AI, I don't think I've ever seen her.

One of the spokespeople for Donald Trump said, it's just another example of the Trump derangement syndrome therapy session. Nobody cares about this except for the media that's reporting it. No, no, Abigail, no. And this is why you're doing so poorly in the polling numbers, now crashing down below Nixonian levels, the lowest, lowest popularity Donald Trump has ever had or lack of popularity.

It's because it isn't that. It is 60 million, when you total it up, people and a few media. Midas is covering it. Sure, Katie Fang, our friend, is out there in Minnesota for the main one and others in our universe are covering it. But we're not making up the 99.9% of the majority that's on the street. And this is their problem, Ben, as you know, and you've been covering as they move towards the midterms. It's this complete magical thinking and lack of recognition about how hated and despised the Trump administration is right now.

I mean, I think you used it in a video. I certainly did when the CPAC talk about Trump should have expected home cooking. Conservative political action committee where we'll talk about something Todd Blanche said there and all the MAGA go there. and the chairman of the CPAC decides he's going to lead a chair. He violated the rule you and I learned when we were young lawyers, which has never asked a question you don't know the answer to. And he said, what do you guys think about impeachment? And they started cheering for Donald Trump's impeachment at CPAC. That's how bad things are getting for the Trump administration,

along with all the court cases that you and judge decisions that you and I are going to talk about today on the show. I want to just start by reading from Judge Lynn, the federal judge in the Northern District of San Francisco's order, because it really goes to me to this theme today of the very wildly successful No King's protests out there. Just everybody remembers, I'll just read a little bit from the intro

about the situation with Anthropic and Claude, and then I want to read for you this portion of Judge Lynn's decision where she again refers to the behavior by this Trump regime as Orwellian. This case touches on an important public debate, Anthropic says its artificial intelligence product, Claude, is not ready for safe use in fully autonomous lethal weapons or the mass surveillance of Americans. If the U.S. government wants to use its technology,

Anthropic insists that the government must agree not to use it for these purposes. On the other hand, Donald Trump's Department of War, which is the Department of Defense, says that it must be the one to decide what functions are safe, for its AI tools to perform, not a private company. This public policy question is not for the court to answer in this litigation. It is the Department of War's prerogative to decide what a product, AI product it uses. Everyone, including Anthropic, agrees that the Department of War may permissibly stop using Claude

and look for a new AI vendor who will allow all lawful uses of its technology. That is not what this case is about. The question here is whether the government violated the law when it went further. After Anthropic went public with its disagreement with the Department of War, defendants reacted with three significant measures that are subject of this lawsuit. First, Trump announced that every federal agency, not just the Department of War, would immediately ban Anthropic from ever having another government contract. That would include, for example, the National Endowment for the Arts using Claude to design its website.

Second, Secretary Hegson announced that anyone who wants to do business with the U.S. military must sever its commercial relationship with Anthropic. That would mean a company that used Claude to power its customer service chatbot could not serve as a defense contractor. Third, the Department of War designated Anthropic, a supply chain risk, a label that applies to adversaries of the U.S. government who may sabotage its technology systems. That designation has never applied to a domestic company

and is directed principally at foreign intelligence agents, terrorists and other hostile actors. It goes on to say that the record supports an inference that Anthropic is being punished for criticizing the government's contracting position in the press. Donald Trump and Hegesith have called Anthropic out of control, arrogant describing its sanctimonious rhetoric as an attempt to strong arm the government.

The record shows that it designated Anthropic a supply chain risk because of, quote, hostile manner, through the press. Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government's contracting position is a classic illegal First Amendment retaliation. And then it goes on to say, designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk is arbitrary and likely arbitrary and capricious. There's no legitimate basis to infer this. And the court goes on to describe this as entirely Orwellian. and by in any way criticizing the government,

this is the retaliation you receive. And so the court issued the injunction, Anthropic prevailed thus far. But Popak, this brings into focus, I think, a lot of issues. Number one, not backing down to Trump, right? You could use this case to also talk about there were law firms that submitted. There were law firms that kissed the ring.

There were law firms that stood up to the law when Trump tried to pressure law firms to basically work for him, right? You had situations like that. There were companies that submitted, that gave up, that kissed the ring, that enabled this fascism, and there were other companies that have stood up. When you stand up to Donald Trump just like this, you win. But then also with the geopolitical situation taking place, as the United States is removing and has removed sanctions against Russia and Iran for their oil,

during the war against Iran, allowing Russia and Iran to profit to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. As you have sanctioned Russian Duma members, basically their Senate, get Capitol Hill tours this past week by MAGA Republican Congress members and meet with State Department officials given VIP access. And then these Russian Duma members talked about how this was beyond their wildest dreams, how successful it is. while Trump is out there attacking NATO, while all of this is going on, Popak, the U.S. under the Trump regime, has designated like Anthropic, an innovative company that by all accounts

has one of the most sophisticated AI models out there, a supply chain risk, which doesn't just hurt anthropic. It also hurts all of the companies that utilize it. And as, you know, lots of people have been worried were we in an AI bubble, but one of the only kind of growth areas in this case-shaped economy, though, that's increasingly looking like a, you know, all-downhill,

steep black diamond economy at this point, going down like one of those ski mountains. I'm at this stage. There's like a constant attack on American industry also, supply chain risk. And, you know, I read that intro. And I wanted to capture the words of the judge because you go, wow, this is authoritarianism. This is fascism. And it's stupid fascism. It's stupid. You're going to label it

a supply chain risk and then destroy the American company, then destroy all the American companies, that if anything is making money right now, it's this AI. There's lots of issues with AI. There's beyond lots of issues with data centers, which I think these data centers need to stop being built. and I'm very against it. But like, what's the game plan? What's the game plan here, Popak? So legally, politically, logically, this whole thing is idiotic. And it's stupid.

It reminds me of a story that I actually heard, though, during World War II, there were discussions about whether you kill Hitler, whether you take him out or what you do, basically, you know, one way or another. And one of the allies were like, well, you know, he's so stupid and so dumb and doing such destructive stuff that, no, no, no, just like allow, you know, allow the idiocracy to basically continue and to go on because, you know, the thing with sometimes these fascists, the malignant narcissism is so amplified by the position that it becomes self-destructive and implodes. And whether we're talking about the war in Iran, whether we're talking about

all these things, the self-destructiveness here, it just seems like breaking stuff. Popak. It just seems like breaking stuff for the sake of breaking stuff to soothe his malignant narcissism while he builds golden ballrooms and arches. You and I have been scratching our head from the very beginning as to why a supposed Republican is competing so hard with private equity, private investment, private business. We've never had a government that has been a competitor to the innovation of private industry. It started with the golden share that we now own a piece, whether you, like it or not, of taxpayer dollars being invested in U.S. steel competing against other U.S. steel companies, not name U.S. steel.

Now we own a rare earth mining company or parts of it. We own part of Intel, the chip manufacturer. We own parts of nuclear, a small, a remote nuclear power plant manufacturing and the like. And this is not a situation like when Obama had a bail out of a big auto in 2008 for risk that we would lose the American auto industry and became a, it became like a shotgun marriage where the government had to give them money and all got paid back within five or 10 years to save an industry. That's not what Trump has been doing. Trump has been wheeling, dealing like he and Howard Lutnik, the head of formerly head of Canter Fitzgerald now of the Commerce Department. they've been wanting to use our dollars for the risky business of investing and competing with businesses from the moment they got in. The art of the deal and Howard Lutnik's family office,

Canter Fitzgerald, had always been involved with versions of this. They have this grandiose plan that for right now has been tabled to open up a sovereign wealth fund, which would have been a slush fund. Donald Trump would have funded somehow, maybe through tariffs or maybe through these other fines or penalties or these tithes or tributes that he's forcing companies to pay in order to do business like TikTok's got to pay a 70% of enterprise value in order to allow the TikTok transaction to go forward. Where is that money going? But he was going to do a sovereign wealth fund from day one and start buying up businesses and taking investment positions with our money. I'm not a family office. You want to go back into private.

practice along with Scott Besson and Howard Lutnik and go run their family offices, go ahead, but not with taxpayer dollars while he's completely distracted from the job he was elected to do. So we've always, you and I am like, I thought Republicans were conservative when it came to fiscal things and wanted to get out of the way of big business and regulation. No, Donald Trump just wants to put his greasy fat thumb on the scale of transactions. Oh, I want to be the kingmaker. I want to decide who gets CNN, who gets CBS. Oh, I'm going to use my regulatory body as a puppet to go bash people so that I can have influence and my buddy can get the asset.

That's all we've been watching. So the surprising thing about Anthropic is who its ownership is. Some people might think, where did this company come from? Who owns it? So, yeah, there's a couple of founders, you know, young guys that were smart and put together this business. But its largest investors, not controlling, but largest investors are Amazon, Google, Fidelity. Stop me if you've heard of these companies. And many of them had supported Donald Trump and are continuing to support Donald Trump,

because they think it maximizes their shareholder value. Amazon, of course, owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, Google, Google, YouTube, and the rest. And so they're probably going, what is he? He is so unreliable. What we're watching, and I've done a number of videos about this using my Wall Street experience, is we're watching financial markets, counterparties in foreign policy negotiations like Iran, U.S. companies, all coming to the same conclusion,

that Donald Trump cannot be trusted that his erratic behavior and his lies, which used to move the markets, are no longer being responded to. And now the counterparties for things with the government don't believe they have an honest person on the other side in negotiating. So Google's like, well, we'll just give them a lot of money or Amazon. We'll just give him a lot of money for his library or we'll overpay for Melania's documentary. That'll help, right?

Nope, anthropic, boom. We're going to kill our investment over there. I'll give an example to lead out here. They knew that the Iranian war where every, every day for the last five weeks, gas has gone up, gas at the pump has gone up. And we've had five weeks in a row to match the war of a losing streak on the stock market, which is the longest streak in four years. And they figured going out of Friday and into the weekend, they would try to calm the markets

again, kind of jawbone the market to kind of calm it down. So it wasn't this pattern of oil up and stock prices down. Oh, there's a, there's a self-imposed, you know, we're going to hold our, we're not going to fire on Iran for five days or 10 days or whatever it is. Oh, and then it goes in the opposite direction. So they sent Marco Rubio out again on Friday, the Secretary of State to say, pump the brakes. This war is going to be over in weeks, not months, thinking, oh, that'll work, right? The stock market went over the cliff, dropped 2% oil shot up. Nobody is believing or listening to the Trump administration any longer because they're completely untrustworthy.

And it scares the crap out of the American industry and the American innovation industry because he seems to be so concerned about trillions of dollars of phony investment by our allies, the Japanese and the South Koreans, and yet he undermines American innovation, creating American jobs. I'll leave it at this. He said he was going to return manufacturing jobs to the United States. That was the justification for the tariffs

and upending global relationships around the world. He hasn't made one manufacturing job new. In fact, he's only lost jobs while he's been president of the United States. He said he'd be great for agriculture and for farmers, more than 10,000 farms have shuttered under Donald Trump. So everything he said he was going to do to help the economy, a completely jobless Trump economy. And I mean jobless.

You heard the Federal Reserve Chair, Jay Powell, say a couple of Wednesdays ago at his office meeting, that in the last six months, the Trump administration's economy hasn't made one job in six months. Say what you want about Joe Biden, but he was a job-creating. engine, 400,000 jobs every month. And this is all going to catch up to the Trump administration when the March numbers come out for lack of job creation, inflation, and interest rates. Because that's what the market is looking at. And do you remember, Ben, when Howard Lutnik, the Commerce Secretary and Donald Trump said, just wait till the first quarter of 2026, or no later than the second quarter of 2026, that's when the Trump economy comes roaring in

to existence. And what are we watching? The exact retrograde of our economy as Americans suffer and now take to the streets all day today to protest. You know, they behave as parodies of the Ponzi schemers. If you wrote this in a script, their behavior, the Lutniks and the Trumps and the Bessence, and you provided it to me and I was a Hollywood studio, I would say you got to make it a little more realistic. I mean, the Bernie Madoffs, they're a little more subtle with it than just. just outright saying, give me into the next quarter and I'll be able to give you your money. It's never going to be bigger. You're never going to be richer.

We've never been hotter. I'd be like, just tone it down a little bit because nobody's going to believe that. And that's precisely what happened. I thought you were going to say, Popak, that Lutnik really said the fourth quarter of 2025 was going to be when they own the economy. But they keep moving them. Just do wait. 2026 is going to be the banquet, Besson said.

Actually, it's going to be 2027 when things are going to be, you know, things are going to be great. But look, this follows a pattern of Donald Trump's life. And there's a reason that he's been involved in lots of cases where he's been sued. And when you stand up to him legally, when you stand up, whether he sues you and you stand up and you confront him, someone like, you know, whoever it is, you will always win. whether he's suing you and you're the media. Trump doesn't even take those cases to trial. He's too scared to go to trial on those cases. I mean, think about it.

When E. Jean Carroll sued him, Trump was too scared to show up for the day when he was supposed to testify. So E. Jean Carroll just used the deposition testimony video where Donald Trump looked horrible. E. Gene Carroll beat Donald Trump. And Trump was in Ireland and Scotland, pretending he was building things over there. And she beat Donald Trump. Look at Abrago Garcia.

Donald Trump's thrown all of the resources to try to destroy Abrago Garcia. And Abrago Garcia not just persist, he's able to beat Donald Trump. And trust me, the Iranians see that. They know Donald Trump. They understand his pathology. That deep down, or actually not all that deep down, he is a very weak individual. He is a loser. there's a reason that he's bankrupted company after company, right?

There's a reason that he, when you stand up to him legally using your moral and formal authority, the guy folds, he'll do everything. I mean, he's a maniac. He won't stop. And lots of people just get exhausted by it because it's like enough, enough. What do you want? What do you want me to do? Because he's an exhausting, like, malignant, narcissistic, pathological creature.

It's wild. He won't. I mean, it's 20, 20, he still posts about the 2020 election over and over because he's a maniac. But if you just stand up and you punch back and we all collectively, morally, formally, informally, whatever, assert ourselves back, that's the most important lesson. I want to talk more about that as well when we come back from the break. And I want to talk about, you know, the good example is you put someone in place like a Congress member Robert Garcia of the House Oversight Committee and they get to work. work and they don't back down on the Epstein files and people like Roe Kana and Stansberry and other

people on that committee just keep on pushing hard. You get results. You get results and you get breakthroughs. Let's talk about that and more. Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, if you or anybody you know has been injured in a auto accident, a trucking accident, if you or anyone you know, is the victim of sexual assault or harassment, employment cases, If you know somebody who was killed in an accident and their families looking for a lawyer, reach out to the Popok firm, 877 Popok AF or visit thepopofirm.com. The consultation is free. They have lawyers across the country.

Don't be shy. Popok is now representing a lot of people who listen to the Legal A.F show and who go to the legal F YouTube channel, 877 Popok AF, call or text or visit the Popock firm.com. Also, make sure you subscribe to Popok's YouTube channel. Legal AF's YouTube channel is soaring. Let's get that 2 million subscribers. In addition, go to the LegalAF Substack. Let's keep growing that Substack community as well.

I love your lives on Substack when you just, you know, what you're like sometimes? I just gotta speak to the people. Let's go live right now. Let's take our first quick break of the show. We will be right back after this quick message. Okay. What do you get the person who always says,

don't get me anything. I recently found the funniest personalized gift ever, and it's an actual full-length book. This podcast is sponsored by Bookbyanyone.com. Bookbyanyone.com lets you create a fully personalized AI-generated book where your friend, partner, or family member is the main character in a wild sci-fi, fantasy, thriller story, or even a non-fiction book about themselves. This is not a novelty pamphlet. It's a professionally printed hardcover book with over

200 pages of completely original content. The entire book is generated around the person, the title, the cover, the table of contents, story, and even the back cover, fake reviews. I recently sent a book from, Book By Anyone, to a friend and they absolutely loved it. How do you make a book from Book By Anyone? It's simple and fun. You head to Bookbyanyone.com, answer a few questions about the person, pick a book idea, and cover, and Bookbyanyone.com does the rest. It literally takes two minutes and you have a professionally printed book on your choice of paperback or hardcover. I can't stop talking about book by anyone. For me, the reactions are the best part. Seeing a person open a book and realize they are the hero is genuinely hilarious.

It's a perfect gift for birthdays, holidays, or people who are impossible to shop for. Because literally no one expects to open a book about themselves. Plus, book, Book by Anyone has printed over 450,000 books so you can trust that they make a quality product. And shipping is always free. So you can get the best book at the best price for a gift that's truly unforgettable. Head to bookbyanyone.com. Order your book today and enjoy free shipping at bookbyanyone.com. One last time, that's bookbyanon.com.

Look, the magnesium, it's something most of us lack. And if you're taking that drugstore variant, you're safe. still not get in the full picture. Industrial farming, chronic stress, and everyday aging all make it worse. Most supplements only use one form of magnesium, but magnesium comes in many forms that support your body in different ways. That's why you need to try qualia magnesium plus. It combines 10 bioavailable forms of magnesium with more than 70 trace minerals for comprehensive full-spectrum support. Sleep deeper. Think sharper. Recovery faster. Support muscle strength, a steadier mood and balanced energy metabolism. It's not just a sleep supplement. Oh no. It's a full body magnesium system

built for modern living so you can feel your best every day. Since adding qualia magnesium plus to my routine, I'm feeling easier recovery from workouts and a calm, more centered wind down at night. It's been a supportive addition to my daily wellness routine. Experience the most trusted magnesium for purity, potency, and performance, plus it's non-GMO, vegan, and gluten-free, making it a choice you can feel good about. Go to qualiaLife.com slash legal AF for 50% off. And here's a bonus.

Use the code legal AF for an additional 15% off your order. That's Q-U-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-L-F.com slash legal AF. and then use code LegalAF. Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. Welcome back to LegalAF. Thank you to all of our sponsors. The discount code for all of those sponsors is in the description below.

You know what I want to talk about? We'll talk about Epstein in a moment and the Indyke deposition, the con deposition, the hard drives. I think it's important that we touch upon this. But I just want to start by talking about the story that Politico broke about how the acting ice chiefs Steve Todd Lyons has reportedly been hospitalized twice for stress while carrying out these ICE

Gestapo kidnappings and throwing people in concentration camps. Officials saying the intense pressure, especially getting yelled at by Stephen Miller, has affected his ability to think straight. He's described as always being sweaty and red-faced and nervous and that he's like frozen in time and doesn't really know what to do because he's so worried about getting yelled at and he's so stressed out about his job. Part of the story is they say that they carry around a defibrillator around him because they're afraid that when he has these panic attacks, you know, he'll pass out and he won't be able to breathe.

I'm not making that up. That's in the story as well. And so it's a story about the head of ice who says constant panic attacks. They get so bad, he gets hospitalized because the stress of his job is too much for him to bear. Okay, Popak, why, you know, look, early bits will be very clear. You know, I treat the medical diagnoses part seriously, and I don't want to mock people's medical conditions. However, however, but the famous but, when it comes to Todd Lyons, when it comes to ICE,

that have killed people, that have thrown people into concentration camps, where it doesn't even get enough attention, how many people died last year, dozens and dozens and dozen. Over 50, 50, 60 people or so died last year. Over a dozen people murders. It's called murder, not died, murdered in concentration camps last year. That we know of. I bet you the number is actually higher because we're always learning about more people.

This year, about a dozen people murdered in the concentration. camps, more murdered on the street, whether it's Renee Nicole Good, Alex Preti, one of the reasons why also I think there's no King's protest, you know, it's just like enough of this, these killers, these, these fascist killers who are just killing our people, who are killing our people on the streets. One of the things I said during the I heart speech, when we won that award, I was just saying, like, we got to stand up and call out these killers and call them killers. We can't both sides of these issues, you know, in this historical moment. But, you know, we talk about all of these, you know, these cases.

But, I mean, just this morning there was a case. I'll try to pull it up where a federal judge in Texas, you know, issued an order where they ordered the DOJ that like unlawfully deported somebody to Mexico and then rerouted the person to Guatemala when there was a stayaway. There was a specific order that said, you could deport the guy, but not to Guatemala. You know, it was kind of like Abrago Garcia. You could deport the guy, but not to El Salvador. So you bring him to El Salvador where you can die. You could deport the guy, but not to Guatemala. You deport the guy to Guatemala.

You know, there was a story that Politico ran this week as well. And Kyle Cheney does a really good job on this reporting on this. That talked about all of the cases where the Trump regime, right before this war in Iran, was working with the Ayatollah. Trump regime was partnering with the Ayatollah in order to deport. court Iranian democracy followers, asylum seekers, back to Iran where they were likely killed. We don't know the ending story of all of these Iranians who were sent back to Iran who were seeking asylum here. But there were many, many, many Iranians came to America to flee the Ayatollah

who Trump worked with the Ayatollah. I mean, it wasn't Trump directly. It was ICE and the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps and there and sent it back to Iran. And, One of the ways we learned about this, there was some hearings this week where individuals were still supposed to be deported to Iran. And the judge would ask, well, so what are you doing? And then the Trump DOJ said, there are airport closure. I kid you not. This was literally what they said. There are now airport closures, recent airspace closures and airport closures in Iran.

So we currently won't be able to effectuate the deportation. So you have this ice torturer, Todd Lyons. I mean, can you make this up Popak if you wrote this in some dystopian Shakespearean thing who goes out there, plays tough guy, and then privately they carry a defibrillator around because the guy suffers from frequent panic attacks because he gets yelled at by Stephen Miller. Poppac, Poppac, Poppac. Sure, it makes some sense of it all. You want, we could just talk about Epstein. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, Todd Lyons has, and we don't,

we don't feel sorry for the guy. I'm not begrudging him having a medical condition, but, you know, it also reminds me of the scarlet letter. I mean, is he, is the problem here is because he's carrying so much stress because of the illegal and unconstitutional and lawless rogue things that his department is doing? I mean, just to. turn something on its head. Now that we've seen Greg Bovino's true stripes, who's stepped down as the head

of Border Patrol, now that he's out, it looks like a complete lunatic now that he's no longer in the office. He was crazy when he was in the office. He's even worse now that he's being interviewed, now that he's resigned or been pushed out. Same kind of thing for Todd Lyons. To see that these are the people and their true colors and their true problems that are running these major institutions that at the end, the byproduct of which is Americans and others are being maimed, beaten, killed, murdered, assassinated in the streets. I think, you know, when Scott McVarland joined Midas to be its Washington Bureau Chief and anchor and Daily Reporter in Washington, Trump had Brendan Carr, the head of the FCC,

say, you know, same job, different duty station or whatever, you know, lateral move because he came over to Midas, I'm like, well, I could flip it on its head and say, now that we see these people for what they really are and the screen has been pulled off, the mask has been pulled off, the Greg Bovino's or the Todd Lyons of the world, we see why these organizations are so depraved and corrupted and don't have any leadership at all. Todd Lyons, just to remind everybody, is also the author, or he signed at least, the memo from May that tried to destroy the Fourth Amendment and its protections against you being illegally searched and seized in your homes and in your papers by having somebody knocked down the front door and violate your castle keep. He rewrote, probably because Stephen Miller wrote it for him. He's now outed Stephen Miller.

It's amazing how many people on their way out of the administration yell over their shoulder about the gremlin Stephen Miller. Christine Nome, two weeks before she was fired. I didn't want to do it. I'm just answering to Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. Todd Lyons. Stephen Miller makes me make bad decisions. I'm not blaming it on Trump, but Stephen Miller. They all think that that's some sort of savior for them.

Todd Lyons writes that memo. He's had a now defendant. it, Congress is all over him about it. Judges are all over him about it. We've had judges like Judge Schultz, the chief judge in Minnesota, the home of the kickoff No Kings Day today, as it should be, rightfully so, given it was ground zero for the unlawful rogue conduct assassinated to Americans on the streets. Also, where Don Lemon and St. Paul were Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, were arrested and are being prosecuted by this lawless Department of Justice, corrupted one. Judge Schultz said, I got an idea, since you continue to violate hundreds and hundreds and

hundreds of orders in the month of January and February and March alone in this district, you release the person that I've ordered released under habeas corpus rights, or you can have Todd Lyons, the head of your department, show up in my courtroom on an order to show cause and testify. And every time the Trump administration has had one of their senior people ordered to appear for testimony, they've chickened out, tail between their legs, and folded. That's a lesson to the federal judiciary as they're trying to come up with new and creative tools for their toolback about how to handle the Trump administration. First year was like, what do we do? Can we use contempt? Should we? Second year is like, okay, now we're going to start ordering people like Alina Haba to appear in court unless the following things happen.

And now every time the Trump administration has folded, they didn't want Todd Lyons testifying, they didn't want Alina Haba testifying, they didn't want Todd Blanche testifying in the Ebrigo Garcia case in Tennessee. This is the new magic trick that the federal judges have adopted. But the fact that in the, I've been covering with you, I've been covering law and politics here on minus for six years. I've been an avid follower of all things related to the presidency since, since I, it was in college and it was part of my major. Pardon me, I've never heard of a leader of, within the administration, basically having a nervous breakdown in, in public and admit, and them having to admit, to it, that they're carrying around, as you said, carrying around defibrillators. I mean, when a presidential candidate in the 60s admitted to going to psychotherapy and crying, that tanked his entire career. Now we have people admitting they're having nervous breakdowns because of the stress. Think about it.

We've always, as observers, because we're outside the beehive, right? Even with Scott McFarland hanging out in the halls of Congress and the Senate and everything, we're outside the beehive, the Beehive being the Trump administration. But can you imagine what it's like to be inside this beehive with a cracked Queen, Queen Bee and Donald Trump and the pressure between these out of control, lawless bootjacks like Stephen Miller and Pete Heggseth. And you imagine having to work under these people? And now we see the end result. It's just a byproduct of when you have a corrupt administration, Department of Justice, Homeland Security, Department of Defense. We're seeing the byproducts, we're talking about it on the show, the Iran war and the ineptitude

in its execution, right? And what the plan was about a 90 million person country. And that has backfired. It's how he's handling the economy. It's how he's handling the immigration migration policy. And Americans are fully awake. You know, we're out, I don't know what slumber, what field of poppies that the Trump administration thought we fell into in the first year. But as we talk about and connect back always to the no Kings Day marches, American, look at the polling numbers that came out this week, Ben. You're talking about 30. This is Fox News. Fox News, his approval rating is 40%. And I think that's being kind. 60% of America on Fox has completely rejected him. And so, and if you go down the line of all the things that make up,

all the third rails that make up as administration, immigration policy, affordability, the economy, it's even worse. It's even worse. And there's no way out to you, to paraphrase a political phrase. There's no way out for Donald Trump between now in the midterms. If it is a fate of complete,

if the American people vote and vote in their interest consistent with what they're observing about this administration, it will be a wipeout election for Donald Trump and MAGA consistent with all the special elections and other elections that we've seen over the last year and a half. My prediction, based on all the modeling that I've seen, the economy, the wrong direction, right direction,

consumer confidence, the GDP, all the other things that go into having a heartless president as well, this could be a 240, 250 seat victory in the House. And the Senate, which you and I sort of like, I wonder if we could ever get the Senate back at the start of the administration. Not only is the Senate in play, I'm not saying we're going to get 60 votes, but I think if, again, if we register, if we vote any way we're allowed to vote and not be intimidated by it and the streets of America are telling Trump

we're not intimidated to vote and stand in line, then the 55, 56, 57 votes in the House in the Senate as well. Real possibilities. You know, using a legal analytical framework that we do here on Legal AF and not a political commentary framework has helped us seem like we're predicting the future when, in fact, we're just providing the evidence of the present because political commentary often delves into presenting imagery and spinning imagery and spin and creating these conflicting narratives where even if you like one of the narratives, because it benefits your point of view, is not fully accurate and achievable, but you have these budding narratives. When you use a legal analytical framework like we do with Unlegal AF, it's not about, oh, you're reporting what the Iranian foreign minister is saying, so you must hate the American troops. It's quite the contrary.

What I'm trying to find out is, is Iran broken? Does it no longer have military capabilities, as Trump says? Do they not control these straight of her moves? Trump says everything's obliterated. Does that line up with the evidence? And when it doesn't line up with the evidence, I try to gather the data and make explanations why it doesn't line up with the evidence. That's what Popak does.

That's what they do on the legal AF YouTube channel. It does align with the evidence. I will say that it lines up with the evidence. Now, to your point, Michael Popak, when we talk about a lot of these situations that we're dealing with now, surging inflation, a shrinking GDP, a jobs recession, manufacturing jobs that are being lost, not gained. Remember, the Trump narrative that the media regurgitated was all of this money's coming in $18 trillion, $21 trillion. We are having all this money pour in from Donald Trump's trips abroad. And using the legal analytical framework, we ask basic questions.

Where is this money? Does the Treasury Department have it? We don't see it. Why does our debt continue to increase at the rate it does? We just hit, what, 39 trillion in debt last week? Why does the deficit continue to increase and not shrink? Federal spending continues to rise when the whole purpose of this fake Doge thing was supposed to decrease it. We were promised Doge rebate checks, tariff checks, all these things that the American consumers weren't get.

Those things didn't happen. We know from basic economics 101 that tariffs are inflationary. And we could easily predict that when you have these tariffs, sure, a lot of American companies, I think, were doing their best. to wait out the Supreme Court ruling on Trump's tariffs against the world, and the Supreme Court deemed them to be illegal. But then Donald Trump did another illegal move and said, okay, we'll do the Trade Act of 1974. We won't use AEPA, which is equally illegal as AEPA was,

to which the companies basically were like, well, we can't hold the line anymore because we were just hoping we can lose money quarter one, quarter two, by not passing on so much to the consumer, even though it was being passed, a lot was being passed on to the consumer. We can't hold the ground anymore or we're going to go bankrupt,

but that's why we saw the increase in bankruptcies taking place at a record rate. You could also look at the increase foreclosures. You could also look at credit card delinquencies. You can look at the fact that housing sales are down. You can look at the fact that construction is down right now. And there's all these indicators, out there of what's happening without this war.

And now, even if the war ended, even if the war said was done today, right now, an hour from now, everyone said the war is over. The supply shock that's already occurred is such that will have a massive ripple on the economy, not just for years to come, for decades to come, right? I mean, if you look at the fact that Qatar energy, the biggest producer, one of the biggest producers

of liquefied natural gas their facilities were 20 percent destroyed they account for 20 percent of the world's lng that is a massive disruption that won't be fixed for three to five years right the lNG has to come from somewhere that's one of the areas it was coming from and that will have a massive ripple effect like if you said that that occurred without a war that in and of itself could be one of these contagions that spread and that lead to kind of a wide spread one more in more in on that note if if the price of a barrel of oil measured by in this what we call the brent the brent um oil index is that 109 leaving friday if it goes to a hundred and thirty eight not even the two hundred hundred that is likely by june if this war continues just to a hundred and thirty eight dollars this is

analysts and stays there for a month a uh u.s. recession is guaranteed. I think, as you do, we're already in one. And when economists, which they often do, look back with 2020 hindsight as to this quarter in American history, it will be a, that that's when the recession started. On all to blame because of Donald Trump, he was handed, as we've talked about before, he was handed a stable job-creating, low inflation, trending in the right direction economy on a silver platter by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And he promptly threw it into the manure pile and decided to rebuild the economy and global relationships along with it in his own image and those of the plutocrats and billionaires and trillionaires around him in order as

part of yet another example of his vindication retribution campaign. And then see if that would work. Like, let's just totally unplug all the inputs into the American economy and all the outputs and change them in a year and see if that works. It was working before. And I'm so tired. I'll just leave it on this, Ben. I am so tired of American presidencies, the Democrats coming into the American presidency, having to clean up after a failed Republican presidency and not getting the credit for it. So Obama has to come in and stop the closure of American car manufacturing and the banking system, as we know it, coming off of George Bush with trillions of dollars up to it would be a trillion dollars in today's money. Joe Biden has to come in after Donald Trump spend three to five trillion dollars to restart the heart of the American economy to create new jobs again after COVID.

And now the next American president that's going to have a D next to their name is going to have to pick up the pieces from this economy with a debt and deficit that will have lasting impacts, as you said, contagions, into the future for your and my daughter and future children. But again, the Democrats always have to start cleaning up the stable from an erratic, not logical economic policy that crushes the end. American dream. And then we start from there. You know, but it's also why I think the framework of analysis is an important thing that I hope the Midas Touch Network and Legal A.F and the family of channels that work with us are utilizing not the same old media style. Because the same old media style, you know, a Democrat comes in and there's a whole set of different standards that apply. To me, the standard that should apply to Democratic Republican administrations, regardless, is just the truth and the facts and actually following the details.

I mean, you know, it's maybe a little bit boring to report on, you know, the fact that helium production is down or fertilizer production is down or fertilizer that's already been bought is not making its way into the United States. But when you actually learn that helium is a critical component in how you get your MRIs, and now we have to triage helium usage. because we could be having a situation where MRIs may not be able to be done in the future. We're not at that pivotal level yet, but I think it's important that we make these connections. And I don't need to have a split screen of people yelling at each other and fighting each other,

you know, over certain things, you know, to get to the heart of it. You know, I did something interesting earlier this morning. I had a debate with a guy named Chris Voss. He's like a top FBI hostage negotiator who wrote this book, never split the difference. And I read his book in 2019. And it was a little disheartening to me as a Chris, someone who liked his book in 2019 and his analytical approach,

that he seemed to be making a lot of excuses for Trump. So I brought him on the network just to have a debate with him. And a lot of the things that he was saying is, well, Trump says and Whitkoff says, and this person said this and this person said, I go, yeah, but they're complete and total liars. Like you realize that everything they say is untruthful. And one of the points that he made that I countered is he said, well, you know, the hostage

taker is, you know, when you have to make a deal with the hostage taker, you know, sometimes, you know, you could come up with like a transactional approach to try to resolve the problem. And I said, well, the hostage negotiator and the hostage taker shouldn't be on the same team, right? Like ultimately the goal of a hostage situation is to get the hostage taker to stand down and to free the hostages, not to find a way to build an enterprise to work with the hostage taker to make money off the hostages and compromise the value of the FBI. The FBI is not finding joint ventures with it.

You know, you look at what the U.S. is doing, whether it's with Delsey Rodriguez, what Trump thought he can do with Iran, like Trump's, I guess, was that he and the Ayatollah would become partners, right? And they would like make money in billions of dollars with the, like, he thought that he can do what he's doing with MBS with the Ayatollah, and they're saying, no, we don't, it's not what we want. You completely misunderstand, you know, our country, the history of it, and the dynamic that's playing out. And now from all accounts, Trump's frustrated and he's bored. So this morning, he was posting, you know, Letitia James memes and attacking her and saying, we got her under investigation again,

and 2020 election things and attacks on Zelensky. And it's like, dude, what are you doing? Like, What is this behavior that you're exhibiting? So anyway, the short of it is that to me, when you use a legal analytical framework to see things that you look at the evidence and you're not debating politically, you're just sharing evidence and gathering data. And if you have better data than me, like with Chris Voss, if you have better data than me and say the straight of her moose is open and that Iran's not actually using Shahi drones and ballistic missiles around the neighbors and that America's interceptor stockpile

is not fully reduced and destroyed. Like if that exists, you know, share it with me. But I don't need to say he said or she said or they said. I want to know what the facts say. So with that said, what do the facts say about where we are in the Epstein investigation? Michael Popak has not let up. He's not allowed Trump's distractions to impact the constant and consistent reporting on Trump's cover up of a child sex trafficking ring with his Department of Justice.

talk about that we'll talk about todd blanche's comments uh at at that c pack a little bit more we'll take our last break of the show a quick reminder make sure you subscribe here to our youtube channel but more importantly subscribe to the legal a f youtube channel let's get legal a have two million subscribers in addition to getting legal af two million subscribers subscribe to legal af on substack as well that substack legal a f is just absolutely crushing you right now subscribe there also if you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident a truck accident. You've been injured by the negligence of others if you know someone who tragically was killed by the negligence of a company or in a car accident or a crash and the family's looking for a

lawyer. Call or text 877 Popak AF or visit thepopfirm.com. A free consultation. Michael Popock's firm represents so many people who listen to this program and who watch him on the legal AF YouTube channel. Don't be shy. It's a free consultation. The worst they'll say is that you don't have a case and I'm sure you know somebody who's been looking for a lawyer or who's been, you know, gone through something difficult or you or someone you know and your family may be experiencing that. Reach out, 877 Popok AF or visit the Popok firm.com available 24-7 and in all states throughout the United States. They have people ready to answer your questions. For free, they'll answer your questions for the initial consultation. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. Popak,

you'll break it down when we're back. See you soon after this quick break. Delete me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Look, as someone with an active online presence, privacy is really important to me. There's just too much personal information floating around online, and I don't have time to track it all down myself. Delete me. Does all the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal information for, from data broker websites. Delete me isn't just a one-time service.

Delete me is always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information you don't want on the internet. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now at a special discount for our listeners, get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join DeleteMe.com slash legal AF

and use promo code LegalAF at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to join deleteme.com slash legal a.f and enter code legal a.f at checkout. One more time, join deleteme.com slash legal a.f, code legal a.F. Busy days, big goals, but no time to cook. I've been using factor. Fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the planning or cooking. One of my favorites lately is the garlic herb salmon. It fits perfectly into my February routine with lean protein, colorful vegetables, whole food ingredients, and healthy fats, plus no refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners, and no refined seed oils. Whether you're focused on healthier eating, calorie management, or getting more protein, factor makes it simple.

They rotate over 100 meals every week, including high protein, calorie smart, Mediterranean diet, GLP1 support, ready to eat salad, and the new muscle pro collection for strength and recovery. Everything is always fresh, never frozen, ready in about two minutes. No prep, no stress. I use this and you should too. Head to factormeals.com slash legal a.f 50 off and use code legal AF 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor.

New subscribers only varies by your. plan one free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. Legal AF is brought to you by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The First Amendment isn't ambiguous and it isn't optional. It's clear. Government may not establish religion and it may not favor one belief system over another. But across the country, lawmakers and public officials are testing those limits, pushing prayer into public schools, carving out religious exemptions that undermine civil rights and blurring the line between church and state in ways the Constitution expressly forbids. That's where the freedom from Religion Foundation comes in. FFRF is a national

nonprofit that uses education, advocacy, and the law to hold government accountable when it crosses that line, protecting the rights of believers and non-believers alike. Because religious freedom doesn't mean government endorsed religion. It means freedom of conscience for everyone. If you care about the Constitution, the rule of law, and a government that works for all of us, not just the loudest or most powerful, now is the time to act.

Visit ffrf.us slash legal a.f or text the word legal a.f to 511, to learn more and join. Go to ffrf.us slash legal a.f or text legal a.f to 511 to 511 to 511. 11-5-11 and help protect a country that belongs to all of us. Go to f-frf.u-s-l-l-A-F or text legal a.f to 5-Eleven-1 today. Message and data rates may apply. Welcome back to the Legal A-F podcast. I'm Michael Popak.

And I'm going to fill in here and get us to the finish line as my podcast partner and founder Ben Micellis had a conflict. But let's get right down to all things Epstein. No, to answer that question that's often posed, is the three million pieces of documents that Donald Trump finally released from the executive branch, the entirety of what is evidence of the predator's child sex trafficking ring, and that would help the victims and survivors obtain justice in civil cases seeking monetary relief and in criminal prosecutions by not conflicted, not corrupted Department of Justice, the answer to that is and always has been a resounding no.

And the more that the House Oversight Committee, and led by the Democrats, bring in witness after witness after witness, including the accountants and the bookkeepers and the money men around Jeffrey Epstein, the more we're discovering just the extent of what is missing, the known unknowns. if you will. We've always suspected based on testimony, if you will, and interviews given by Michael Wolf, the journalist, who was the last person that Epstein spoke to before, whatever happened to him and that jail cell happened, was writing a book about him, had access to his papers, to his pictures, photos, and the rest. We always wondered, where, when the FBI seized everything, What happened to the photos that Michael Wolf said he was shown of Donald Trump with a young girl or woman on his lap?

And that Epstein showed, according to Michael Wolf, Michael Wolf, what happened to those photos? What happened to the hard drives that were seized and by the FBI and other things? And why did, even after the seizures, why did the Epstein estate continue to have documents that they were spoon feeding to the oversight committee rather than producing them outright. Why weren't they with the FBI? And now Democrats are demanding more information about what happened to the hard drives and other data and why they were removed and where is the list of them? Because we had Darren in Dyke, who was the lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein, and he said that Epstein's hard drives have been obtained by private investigators. We also had the accountant, a Mr. Khan testify about these things as well. Where are the

hard drives that were removed from the Epstein residents? So we have that happening. Then you have, just in the last 24 hours, Bank of America joining J.P. Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, Bank, in making a major settlement, reaching a major settlement with the victims and survivors of the Epstein scandal because of their role in facilitating financially the transactions that kept the child sex trafficking ring alive. In other words, Epstein didn't keep his money under his mattress. There were plenty of enablers, willing or unwilling, who did not do proper onboarding, proper knowing of their customer as required by anti-money laundering laws, bank secrecy laws, the Patriot Act. I worked in a financial institution. I worked closely with the compliance department.

I know what good governance and compliance looks like. And you need to know not only your customer, like his name, but you have to know what are the sources of these large deposits? Why is Leon Black depositing $175 million into Jeffrey Epstein's account? Why is Les Wexner, who founded the Limited and Victoria's Secrets? Why is he putting a billion dollars into Jeffrey Epstein's account? And then after 2008, when the cat was out of the bag and Epstein had to confess at least to participating in child prostitution, in a in a new jersey claim and in 2009 being indicted and all of that why did the banks continue to

look turn a blind eye to what his whether his legitimate whether his business practices were legitimate or not or whether they were being used to fuel his depraved criminal enterprise and those participated in by other people that's why jp morgan chase paid a lot more paid 250 million dollars and deutche bank paid $75 million and now Bank of America, $72.5 million. So this goes into, after a deductive about a third for attorney's fees, this goes into various funds administered by a fund administrator that will then go to those survivors that fit the class action definition, class definition. For instance, in the one that just settled yesterday to be approved by a federal judge, it's anybody who was a victim from a defined period of time.

I think it's like 2008 to like 2019. And there's at least 60, 60, 60, 60, probably more women who fit that bill and will be entitled to a part of the $52 million or so that's left after attorney's fees. There's another class action lawsuit independent of the three that I just talked about. giving the victims up to $500 million less attorney's fees in some measure of justice. There's a new one that got filed in the Northern District of California in San Francisco against Google and the Trump administration because of the sloppy way the Trump administration released the 3 million files pursuant to the Epstein Transparency Act without taking pains to protect

the identity and the personal identifying information of the victims, re-victimizing, re-traumatizing them all over again. And when it came to Google, it's worse, because they're profiting off of this data from the women and girls at the time's names and personal identifying information. And they did a test and put it into the complaint, the lawyers. They said we went on AI mode for Google, and we put in a person.

person's name that we knew was a victim. And we asked Google, is this person in the Epstein files? And they said, yes, they are. And then just casually said, they're in 16 emails and an exchange between this, like, are you kidding me? And so, of course, there's ads around that, and all sorts of things, Google being also the parent for YouTube. And so they're being sued for profiting

off of the depraved failure by the Department of Justice to protect the identities of these victims and re-traumatizing them all over again. The Trump and being sued for negligent infliction of emotional distress, Trump administration. And the fact that the Trump administration is being sued also indicates something else. They had the chance to settle this case before the lawsuit was filed. Because before you can sue the United States of America or any arm of it, you have to go through the Federal Tort Claims Act and make a claim and give the government 180 days to consider your claim and decide whether they want to settle with it before you can go into court. So the fact that they just filed means that the government already rejected voluntarily settling with the Epstein victims, retramatizing them once again.

They have got no problem settling with Michael Flynn, the convicted perjurer, and give him a million dollars or Ashden. Babbitt who tried to break into the Speaker's hallway and do harm to whoever was inside the chambers on Jan 6th and give her family $5 million. But God forbid they do anything and lift a finger to help the Epstein survivors. And that's what this, that lawsuit that I'm describing is all about. And this is a function of really high caliber plaintiffs lawyers who are drilling, down on these concentric circles of financial and other institutions that enabled Jeffrey Epstein and following the money. This won't be the last class action I'm going to report on. You know, there were accountants, there were lawyers, there were certified public accountants,

there were other vendors that knew or should have known that they were in business and in bed with a child sex trafficker or at least questioned it. And that's why they're going to end up having to pay. Now, Google should know better because they just lost in the last week in a jury trial in L.A. brought by a teenager who successfully convinced the jury that her mental health was harmed by the algorithm used by meta, Facebook, Instagram, and Google, YouTube, and all that, in what content they sent her way, which led to her depression, suicidal thoughts, and the like. And a jury, including punitive damages, awarded $9 million, TikTok saw it coming, got out of the way, and settled with that family. That's just one person. The class action, it will be all people

like Epstein survivors. So if they think this is a joke, juries are in no laughing, it's no laughing matter to juries, and they're not in a good, mood about companies like Google and entities like Trump's administration and them being seen to be completely callous when it comes to the survivors of child sex trafficking, especially one that it looks like very sincerely that Trump is covering up about. So we got that going on. And then lastly, Todd Blanche has a knack as the number two lawyer in the Department of Justice, who's often rumored to be the guy that Trump will replace Pam Bondi with as the Attorney General.

But he has a knack for putting his foot in his mouth and confessing out loud and creating evidence that helps defense lawyers everywhere in cases against the government. I've never seen such a thing before. He doesn't have to attend political rallies. In fact, you'd think the Department of Justice wouldn't attend political rallies if they were truly independent. if they were truly not a political, right? That's what you want your Department of Justice and FBI to be. But we know those days ended when Donald Trump returned to power. We have a political hack heading the FBI in Cash Patel,

former right-wing podcaster. His right-hand person was also a right-wing podcaster. We've got Tulsi Gabbard, you know, we've got Pam Bondi, who is a political hack of the highest degree. whenever she goes to a oversight committee hearing, she's always got these palm cards where she reads out loud about the success of the Trump administration instead of talking about the rule of law and corruption

and her own Department of Justice. And so Todd Blanche goes to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee, and he says a remarkable thing, which helps every plaintiff's lawyer that is handling cases against the Trump administration for what's called retaliatory firing, that they're being fired not because they did anything wrong, but because of their being assigned to a Trump case, a Trump investigation, which they had no control over.

So Blanche gets up on stage and says, I want the audience to know that everybody in the Department of Justice and FBI that worked on the two criminal investigations that Jack Smith spearheaded, against Trump are gone. I'm like, well, that's timely because there's a lawsuit, because I brought the lawyer on, there's a lawyer, and she and I work, I don't work at a firm, but I'm of counsel to a firm called the Donya Perry firm, the Perry Law firm in New York, and one of their senior lawyers brought a case just in the last week on behalf of two FBI agents who had exemplary records, In fact, got accommodations and merit bonuses and awards and all sorts of things. But they were assigned.

They didn't volunteer. They were assigned to work on Jack Smith's team for a very short amount of time and got fired. And so if I'm the plaintiff's lawyer, that is in a deposition or at trial better. That is Exhibit A. So Blanche killing his own, he didn't have to go do that interview. He didn't have to say that out loud, but he did. And it's not the only time Top Blanche put his... big fat foot in his mouth. You know, we're waiting any day now, because the briefing is complete,

for Judge Crenshaw in the Eastern District of Tennessee, who presides over the Kilbur Obrego-Garcia criminal case. He's this close to dismissing that indictment and making Abrago a free man completely by finding that the government vindictively prosecuted the case and there's standards for determining whether vindictive prosecution has happened. But the judge, already shifted the burden. Now it's on the government to prove to the judge that they did not vindictively prosecuted because enough evidence was presented by the Brigo Garcia side to demonstrate that there was vindict, at least there was probable cause, if you would, to believe that vindictive prosecution occurred. So they met their burden. Now it's up to the government to defeat it. And the

number one piece of evidence that the judge, Judge Crenshaw used, to shift the burden back on the government was a clip from Todd Blanche on Laura Ingram's show basically confessing that they vindictively prosecuted Abrago Garcia after they got a ruling they didn't like from Judge Zinnis in federal court in Maryland about his civil rights and civil liberties and ordering him be returned from El Salvador in the torture prison there where he was dumped off by the Trump administration without due process. He admitted the vindictive prosecution. And so we're waiting any moment now that we'll report on an illegal AF and on Midas touch about Judge Crenshaw's decision. If I was a betting person, I would say Crenshaw is going to dismiss the indictment that the government did not meet its burden.

They refused to put Todd Blanche on the stand consistent with what Ben and I talked about earlier tonight. They just refused to put any leader on the stand because they know that I'll go terribly for them because they'll be sworn to tell. the truth, you know, it's like the devil entering a church. I'm sure they'll say it burns, it burns, and they won't be able to do it. So they just avoid the whole thing. They put on, they tried to argue around some terrible emails that indicated that Washington was running the Tennessee prosecution against Abrago Garcia, and I think that's a dead bag loser. And again, Todd Blanche can't help himself by putting his silver foot in his mouth, you know, every time. And this is what we're watching because this is an out-of-gast.

This is a gassed administration, intellectually, morally, from a judgment standpoint, because 7,000 people left the Department of Justice, and that's a lot, by the way, and not been replaced. The strain and stress on top leadership, the top five or six people, is extraordinary. That's why we talked about Todd Lyons, the head of ICE, who's got crying, jags going on. It's having it. It's a good old-fashioned what my late mother would call a nervous breakdown in plain sight. The reason for that is that they are so stressed out and it's such an abusive environment inside the Trump administration. Now you understand why the policies are so warped and corrupted because they're being warped and corrupted inside by the human beings who are the

the leaders, the Stephen Millers, the Russ votes. Pam Bondi, I don't really see as a leader. I think it's Trump screams at Bondi, who then, in an unhinged manner, screams at the press or elected officials. I think that's sort of how that goes. But that is on full display with this administration, which is why we always bring it back to the politics part of the law part, which is America is noticing the unhinged, immoral, lawless quality of the Trump administration, and all of the things are just data points that Ben and I have laid out tonight, whether it's inside or outside, whether it's our adversary. I mean, Ben and I joke before we got on the air today

that it's a sad state of affairs where I find that I'm trusting more the propaganda coming out of the Iranian regime than I can my own government and its spokespeople about what is really happening or not happening about the war or the ceasefire or peace negotiations. That's a sad state of affairs, one that the Iranians are smartly using to their credit to wage what is effectively an asymmetrical war because they can't beat the American war machine so they have to outthink and out-stratage, use some cheap drones against the billion-dollar bumper busters, hit strategic and tactical targets, you know, and look like the more reasonable and logical of the two parties to the rest of the world. I never thought I'd be saying this, and I'm not an apologist for the Iranian regime,

but as between the two, who looks more logical and reasonable? as a stakeholder in the negotiations. You can put it in chat. But the American people understand that the Iranian war has only weakened the American position around the world, that the world now knows that the emperor not only has no clothes, but is cracked. It has gone bonkers.

And that has weakened our national security. The war in Iran and setting the Middle East on fire and making our allies in the Middle East not trust us, makes us as Americans less safe, not more safe. And the fact that we, that, you know, it's one thing to threaten war and maybe strategically hit a nuclear facility here and there. It's another thing to show that you have no appropriate war strategy and that the world and your enemies start laughing at you,

and that makes us very insecure. If Trump doesn't think this is emboldening Putin and North Korea and China to condemn to test America under Donald Trump, I mean, then I don't know what he's watching. Putin is rubbing his hands in glee, watching an outmatched Donald Trump be outfoxed by the Iranians. You know, any chimpanzee could drop the bomb. Yeah, that's not hard. You can train anybody to push the button, control a drone.

What's your strategy? What's your tactics? What's your end game? What's the exit? These are all unanswered questions because we're watching an administration that's run by infants. You know, that's no disservice to infants, but that's what we're watching. And that's why, to tie it and wrap it up here at the end of the show, No King's Day, so important today, so honored that many of the No King's protesters on the streets are, people who watch and love and find community and fellowship on Midas Touch, on Legal A.F.

We do all that we do every minute of the day. For the minute I get up in the morning and until the minute my head hits the pillow at night, all I do is think about how to connect with, educate, activate our audience and do it in an honest way, with honest independent commentary, without censorship, so that you have what you need on the street, in your social media, around your kitchen table, at work, if that's still allowed, to debate what is right and what is wrong, because there is a right and a wrong,

what is factual and what is a lie, and in the marketplace of ideas, in our participatory democracy. which is a contact sport, and I don't mean that in a violent way. This is what we're watching, the 50, 60 million people over five or six marches, the 10 million people or more today. What we're watching is people understanding that this is a contact sport, that this, you have to get off the sidelines, and you have to get into the streets.

the Attorney General of Arizona and that of California, Chris Mays, and Rob Banta, refer to it as the three Cs. We cover all three Cs between the Midas Touch Network and Legal A.F. It's courts, crowds, and courage, right? We talked a lot about all three Cs today. It takes a lot of courage of federal judges, of the person on the street to stand up for our patriotism, our values, as embodied in our governing documents of the Constitution and the, including the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

These are our governing documents. It takes a lot of courage to defend those and our rule of law from the vantage point of being a judge, but it takes even more courage to be one of 10 million people today to go into the streets. against all odds and maybe a National Guard and maybe an ice or border patrol or whatever other obstacles have broken out. But this peaceful movement, which Midas has helped not create, but helped organize, I guess, the right way, or to have a place, a consistent place, a consistent home that lives on beyond the three or four times a year that were able to all get together on the street. That is the beauty of this audience, of its commitment to Midas, and Midas' commitment back to them.

And by extension, of course, legal AF, we didn't get to mention at the top of the show, but this is the sixth year anniversary of Midas Touch's podcast. This is the fifth year, almost to the same day, fifth year anniversary of the show we call Legal A-F, which you're on right now. If you back it up to when Ben and I started doing legal and political reporting together as a team, it's really also the sixth year. Some of you have been with us for the five and six years. Some of you are new tonight.

And yet we welcome all of you to this audience, an amazing audience that gives us such pride and such a chill down our spine every time we do a video, we do a live report, or we do our podcast. And so, so pleased that you're here for us as we continue to grow this pro-democracy channel and that of Legal A-F. The way, of course, to support what we do, become a subscriber on the Midas Touch Network, become a subscriber on Legal A-F YouTube. I think this weekend we're going to go to 1.1 million subscribers, which is fantastic. I got some great content.

goes up 12 videos a day. Little programming guide for the Legal AF YouTube channel. This coming week, I'm going to have Representative J.B. Raskin, who is, of course, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee. He'll be joining me. Representative Summer Lee will be joining me. She's on the Oversight Committees about the Epstein Matter as well. I think you're going to find what she has to say fascinating as we continue to grow about.

Scott McFarland, who just joined as the, Washington Bureau Chief and anchor for Midas Touch is going to be doing some crossover episodes and programming with me over on Legal AF YouTube channel on the intersection, my podcast on Tuesday nights exclusively on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF Substack where I do two lives a day. Yes, I do. We're doing one. You already had one today with me on Substack. And Scott McFarlane will be joining me regularly on Substack.

I'm running a special no Kings Day sale in honor of our fifth or sixth anniversary. 35% off on legal AF substack paid membership. We'll certainly give you a return on your investment for your support. Of course, we've got our great pro-democracy sponsors, all hand-picked and curated by Jordan Bicellis over on the Brothers podcast. So appreciate you being here. Thanks for a lively set of... chats tonight and for your participation if you're able to in No Kings Day. Until my next report

and for Ben My Salas, shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal A-Fers.